Aliens: The Company You Keep
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: "Building better worlds." That was a mantra adopted by Weyland-Yutani in the 22nd century. It was a mantra that led them to develop numerous worlds. Or in some cases, take over ownership.


**The Company You Keep**

The official name of the planet was DE-636. But like most of the inhabitants of the third rock from Delta-VIII Zoradus, Elizabeth Wallin called it Demeter.

It was named after a Greek goddess whose daughter had been dragged to the underworld for the winter, and allowed to return to the mortal realm for summer. Whatever the truth of that story (almost certainly none at all), DE-636 had seasons much like Earth. Seasons slightly longer as its year was divided into fourteen local months, each day coming up at 22.2 hours, but seasons all the same. In the latter half of the 22nd century, as the Frontier was constantly pushed back by terraforming and colonization, Demeter was a rarity in that it was a planet that already had an environment suitable for human habitation. A warmer environment, granted, with the equatorial regions uninhabitable, and a gravity of 1.4g, but still, that was far more hospitable than the environments that the Company was terraforming on every piece of rock they could get its hands on. The likes of Weyland-Yutani would spend billions on terraforming, then reap in trillions from a planet that belonged to them. The Colonial Administration might make a fuss, some of the countries of Earth might try to claim sovereignty on whatever legs they had to stand on, but out here, hundreds of light years from Earth, Liz knew the truth. Money talked. Even through the vacuum of space, money's voice could be heard loud and clear.

She could also hear the voices of the mercs that walked down the roads of Sejuk Station, so named after the captain who'd first made landfall on the colony twelve years ag. Mercs that carried battle rifles, wore caps to protect them from the fierce sun, and gave Liz the occasional glance. It wasn't as if there was any shortage of women (or men) in the colony, but still, they had the guns. They had the power. They could afford to give women like her the odd glance, and not be surprised when her reaction was anything other than keeping her head down. Or maybe it was they bore a **WY **logo on their shoulder patches – a reminder to the users and viewers of what that logo stood for, and the power behind it.

Nevertheless, she stepped into Administrator Rawne's habitation unit. Cool as it was in here (thanks to the solar-powered air conditioning), she didn't break breath or sweat when she walked up to his desk, thumped her hands on the desk, and said, "this is a mistake."

Rawne, initially typing away at a computer, gave Liz a withering look before looking at his watch. "Right on time," he murmured.

"Excuse me?"

"You set a meeting for 1400. It is now two pm, and three seconds." He paused. "Make that four I guess."

"Don't get cute Rawne."

"Me? Cute?" He leant back in his chair and gestured to Liz to take a seat opposite him. "Never."

Scowling, Liz nevertheless took it.

"So," Rawne said. "I know what you're going to say. But before you say it, just keep in mind that fact, and try to come up with-"

"Hiring Company mercenaries is a mistake."

"And there we go," Rawne said. "Same claim, same bullshit." He looked at his watch again. "You have five minutes to give me a new argument."

"Five? You said this meeting could go for ten."

"And now you have four minutes, forty-five seconds."

Liz glared at him. Rawne was administrator for a reason. A reason that involved immaculate timekeeping, above-average bookkeeping, and a handful of sticks up his arse. Up until now, her job as head of colony security had kept her at arm's length from him, but now, in light of recent weeks…

"Okay,' Liz said. "I get it. Really." Rawne remained silent, so she kept going. "Two weeks ago, we find Peter White strung up in the jungle with all his skin missing. Few days after that, Wade Seghal's headless body is found, and his skull missing. A day after that, Karen Parks is found bleeding out murmuring about a ghost before dying in my arms. Two days after that, I-"

"Stop," Rawne said, holding up a hand.

Liz obliged, even if she maintained her frown.

"You don't need to tell me about what's happened," he said. He got to his feet and walked to the window, looking out over the colony, the electric fence that surrounded it, and the jungle beyond. "There's something or someone on the planet that's killing us, and despite your forays, you've had no luck finding it."

"If I-"

"So," Rawne said, interrupting her. "That leaves me with three options. One, pack up the colony. Two, keep letting you piss on the tornado in the hope that the sky will clear. Three, swallow my pride and call in help. And thanks to the Company, we got it."

Liz frowned. "You know the Company doesn't deal in charity."

Rawne remained silent.

"And I know that the Company only agreed to be here in exchange for a ten percent stake in the colony for the next fifty years."

"What's your point Liz?"

She sighed. "What's my point? Well, there's how the Company operates. Give it a small piece of the pie, sooner or later the knives come out to keep shovelling in more. That, and what kind of message is it sending that Sejuk Station can't survive without an Earth megacorp providing security?"

"Over the last few weeks we've lost eighteen men and women," Rawne murmured. "I let that happen, what kind of message is _that _sending?"

Liz had no answer. Seeing that, Rawne made his way back to the desk and looked at his watch again.

"Thirteen seconds," he murmured.

Liz cleared her throat. "If you could contact the Colonial Administration, maybe have them enlist-"

"No," he said. "Absolutely not. Any Earthside military force is over a month away, and they're no better than the Company."

"So you _do _admit having the Company here is a problem?"

Rawne scoffed. "You know what a problem is Liz? Having bodies pile up." He looked at his watch again. "Alright. Time's up. Piss off." He returned to his computer screen, leaving Liz to slowly get to her feet.

"Building better worlds," she murmured. "Wonder if that's even true."

Rawne gave no sign that he'd heard her, which wasn't surprising in the least.

He wasn't listening.

##

The official name of the planet was DE-636. But unlike most of the inhabitants of the third rock from Delta-VIII Zoradus, Elizabeth Wallin called it Demeter.

Most of the inhabitants called it Paradise, so named to reflect the efforts of the Company, having turned a backwater frontier world into a hub for commerce in this section of the Frontier. The town, so named Atkins Point after the captain of the Company ship that had first made landfall here, had swelled from a few hundred to a few thousand. Even now, Liz still called it Sejuk, but she was in the minority. Twenty years had passed since the arrival of the Company on this world, and in doing so, they'd wanted to remove traces of the old one. So when she stepped into the office of Administrator Nyoka, she made a mental note that there was still no sign that Rawne had ever been here.

"You're late," Nyoka barked.

Liz smirked – she'd never thought she'd reach the moment in her life when she'd miss Rawne. But it had arrived five years ago. Back when he'd died from drift fever, and the Company had swooped in to fill the nest before his body was even cold.

"Much apologies," Liz murmured, handing Nyoka her data pad.

"Many," Nyoka murmured.

"Excuse me?"

"Many," the administrator repeated, as she studied the data. "It's _many _apologies, not _much _apologies."

There was no trace of Rawne. But sometimes she wondered if his ghost was working his magic through Nyoka in mysterious ways. Either way, she stood to attention as Nyoka handed the pad back to her.

"You're to disperse the protestors," he said. "Shock sticks, tear gas, whatever. Just get them out of the way."

Liz frowned.

"Something wrong, Wallin?"

Liz felt the urge to rub her shoulder – the one that showed the insignia of **WY**, marking her as a grunt in the Company's private army. Something wrong…things had gone wrong twenty years ago. Back when mercs had shown up, failed to find the creature that had killed all the colonists, and had decided to stick around. Things went wrong as Company worked its magic to expand its stake in the colony, to the point where it had a 51% share. And things went really, _really _wrong when, six years ago, a regiment had been deployed in the company of a few hundred colonists declaring that they were all one big happy family now.

"Wallin?"

Liz sighed. "No ma'am. Of course not ma'am. Non-lethal methods to be used ma'am."

"Good." Nyoka leant back in her chair and looked at Liz like some kind of angry school teacher. The type that the Company had brought here to educate the next generation of Paradisians, extolling the virtues of the Company and their colonization efforts.

"Is there something else you want to say ma'am?" Liz murmured.

Nyoka smiled faintly. "That obvious is it?"

Liz shrugged, and Nyoka leant forward. "Alright," she said. "I'll say it. Rawne vouched for you, which is why I've given you a role in Company Security. Personally, I think you're a poor fit, and the last five years haven't exactly been a stellar endorsement of your lawkeeping record."

"What can I say? I think throwing indentured workers into the brig should be a last rather than first resort."

The smile faded. "Watch your tongue, Wallin. And watch yourself. Because I can easily ship you off to a less hospitable world than this."

Liz didn't doubt it. The Company was still continuing its terraforming efforts. Still "building better worlds." Still transforming even the most desolate of moons into new Edens. Still pushing back the boundaries of the Frontier. Still bringing in a yearly revenue of trillions while so many of their employees barely had enough to live on. Not to mention the indentured workers they'd bring with them from the slums on Earth.

"You're dismissed Wallin." Nyoka returned to her computer.

Liz nodded and walked out, not bothering to give a salute. She didn't want to be with Nyoka any longer than she had to.

After all, one had to be wary of the company they kept.


End file.
